Yesterday was a taxing trip looking at hundred and thousands of figurines at Greenhills, the place to go for shelf fillers. I wasn't alone in this; my cousin had planned to look for a certain Funko pop in those stores.

Little did we know how much effort this took.

While the central mall is seeing improvements nowadays, most of the shopping center is still that notorious mess of stores hidden in nooks and crannies you least expect. Some secret cavern deep inside the mall can only be unlocked by a password and inside is cellphone repair.

Two underestimations: The amount of stores selling fandom collectibles and how rare a Derrick Rose Funko with a poster inside the box is. In the course of this search we've found other things of interest and even a gashapon haven, but still none of what we're looking for.

A shame, really. A place with the same store density as Kowloon's residencies would probably have that kind of toy just out of sheer probability, but no such luck that time. I'm not too fond of figurines myself, then again I am not engrossed in any single fandom nor do I have the disposition.

Well, we didn't find it and ended up buying something else for all that effort. Can't wait to come back.

Not a lot to report for yesterday, money and time felt tight and I went carrying a bag full of origami kusudama models, gauging how much of a burden it would be to commute and how I might approach selling them if at all.

The opening hour means a long line extending down a stairwell, any longer and it will wind back up. While in line on the way to the ticket booth, someone from the Pocky booth approached us for a sample and a ticket promo, causing the group behind me to discuss the merits of taking the promo and scalping the ticket.

Inside I headed straight for the artist tables and had an opportunity to show my wares to one seller whose table is decorated with a few hanging charms. I asked about the paper and they also came from Daiso, albeit in a design not available here as of this writing. I hopped to another table to commission a character and an older lady (someone's mother from what I can remember) noticed me beforehand and asked me about my kusudama. She bought one for my only sale of that day, returning less from the commission I did get.

Later on I met up with a streamer friend, then had some lunch. Looking for a place to eat took a while as every place was full, not unusual for a con Sunday in Megamall. Mother was with me to shop and she had to settle for the supermarket eatery as she could not find any place that wasn't crowded.

I returned to said friend in the middle of a photoshoot, he's the one holding the camera. I sat there for a while as by then my legs were tiring out. I had a bit of a chat with someone, Michael, who was there to learn taking cosplay photos. He's a cook by trade and from wanting to take his own product photos for online selling he's expanding his craft to make photography an extra expertise.

One side of Mall A is under construction, blocking out a decent number of stores including about four galleries at the fourth floor. The only gallery still up was hosting a painter's history of paintings, though that space mostly hosts painting exhibits anyway.

Chapter 6

A quick rundown of this weekend. A combined celebration took place at an aunt's place in Cainta yesterday. Three birthdays combined with the gender reveal of my sister's second kid. I missed out on most of the fun as I had to cater to someone who due to reasons I cannot disclose cannot join the celebrations per se. We went to a nearby mall and I ordered some KFC for him.

The mall is pretty tiny compared to the average mall in Metro Manila, it had a Daiso, which is enough for me. Unsurprisingly most items in there are about the same as in every other branch, including origami papers, so I settled on a pair of scissors that I wanted to get.

I arrived at the place to have a bit of what's left of the party food then not really do anything until we went home at midnight.

Next day, which as of typing this ended a while ago, my mother and I went out for Mass at the Center for Padre Pio near Eastwood City. It was a sleepy ordeal to say the least. We didn't even bother spending a minute more in Araneta and headed straight for home in a minibus to sleep in.

A quiet part of Caloocan just got a bit louder. An SM mall just in front of the sports center means one thing, a new hangout to spend an entire afternoon. Opening day, nay, weekend was brutal, with people already piling up at the entrance, the mall had to open earlier.

My first visit was on its second night, a sudden rendezvous with the sister et al. Just the drive was proof; I could have walked there faster compared to the traffic jam, but the jammed up two-lane road is just the beginning.

When we arrived the place was as packed as it can get. 

The mall isn't big, three floors in an area smaller than a wing of the original SM Fairview. The layout is like the usual SM mall save for some spaces left from adding parking lots. This combined with proximity and the usual area resident's favorite pastime of hanging out in air-conditioned malls and you have yourself a crowded mall.

Every food place is packed and there's nary a corner where a number of people have gathered to take pictures. We only managed to buy fries and shakes (the kiosk had limited options and ingredients because there's just that many), and this was on the second day, at the closing couple of hours.

Maybe letting the opening hype fizzle out will make things better. Yes and no. This Tuesday my mom wanted to check the place out. We went there by lunchtime and it's not that populated. A few days later, namely just this Friday we returned just for the heck of it and slowly but surely people were everywhere again, not as crowded as the first days but close enough.

Having grown up going to malls larger and fancier, I'm certain I'll be going here often only because a trip is cheaper. That's reason enough for me.

Many assume that the entirety of Metro Manila is the same. But living in the part of the region that isn't either an urban metropolis or a poverty documentary hotspot, the sorts of places you get in a lifestyle magazine are a ways (and means) from me. Funny then that I start like this when I'm just going to do a quick update on a dental visit.

Manila is a city that's grown on itself as time passes, and it shows with its old buildings still standing aloft the new ones being made next to them. Residents live amongst pieces of history as they carve their own in this place that has been messy even before Legazpi staked his claim.

Last January 20, my family paid a visit to a dentist who's more or less family (they're second cousins). The car trip involves a transition from the loud and modern bustle of Quezon City to the aged streets of Manila, stuck in time yet it moves along. 

We arrived at the office over at Lacson Avenue, which is just a walk from my university. The place itself looks like a living room that someone rearranged into a dental clinic. The front lobby is about 2 feet by 5 feet large with a TV next to a fridge. Separated by glass is the clinic proper, inside is a desk and two chairs, one awfully close to the door. There is air conditioning but it's hard to notice. I had some time to kill before my turn so I did a bit of a stroll to the old road where I'd get a bit to eat in my college days, Dapitan Street. Some of the old buildings still stand, but there were new faces made and old faces being torn down, the area around the university still prone to change as ever.

I had no time to enter the university proper but the differences in the street I regularly walked for years from a decade ago and now are noticeable.

As for my teeth, I had a cleaning and a rather deep filling, there will be a return visit, maybe I'll actually jot down something for another piece; our attempt at trying out a famous eatery ended on a closed shop.

Chapter 5

Been a while since I posted here, so let me do a quick recap of another traipse.

No thanks to rerouting did a once simple trip to Eton Centris require me to take a train one station away, not counting the extra walking. The events place Elements isn't even close to the station, giving you an opportunity to look at how sparse the area actually is. You see, Eton Centris feels more like a company town or a stopover than a shopping center: Mostly outdoors, 24/7 open eateries, call centers, its location at a busy intersection nowhere near a residence compensated by a railway station. There are still shoppers to merit shops selling non-perishables, but most of  the patron you'll see there are taking a break from work.

Right, onto the event proper. Elements as a venue is a large version of a wedding reception or debut venue. It's large enough for a proper con but isn't really suited for it. This is my second excursion to this place, the first one also an art marketplace prompted by an artist's post on their social. Surprisingly I came in early enough to get in for free, so the next step is to look for the only reason I even bothered: a streamer I watch. My only hints are her username and art style, not enough information in a place where there are over a hundred other artists showing off their wares.

There's a lot of people, a lot of tables, I'd list the sorts of people that are in there but if I did I'd be put on a different list. To say I understand nothing about the fandoms and the witty quips on the typography would be an understatement, but then again this is how it usually goes for me. I have grown tired of the sassy statement merchandise to be honest, but a generation speaks this way and I worry.

Soon enough I find who I'm looking for, to be nice about this without disclosing any information: the usual discrepancy between an online persona and its owner is more striking if the former is in the form of a drawing. It's always a great surprise to introduce yourself as this and that, but you can only pull that off once. I bought a couple of commissions and a sticker, being the broke guy that I am, and went back on train to Trinoma once I'm done and had a late lunch.

The mess of construction in that area meant that the bridge between Trinoma and SM North Edsa has been cut off, now people have to cross the busy North Avenue, one of the many factors creating traffic in the already traffic-prone North Ave-EDSA junction. Road traffic is one thing, but both malls are also congested this weekend.

Now let me end with some observations coming from me who's fully aware I won't be there to sell my work: Every alley I've visited has always been the same: a bunch of small artists trying to get by selling not only their creations but their sentiments, it's a real gallery of both freaks and art, but ironically they all seem to be the same; the same messages ring in every other sticker, everyone seems to have the same disposition to life. At that point it's probably the nature of these things to attract such people (maybe also something about the artist psyche), but I do think, and I know what I'm saying, putting a bunch of relative weirdos in a room doesn't really result in a variety of people.

Chapter 4

Chapter 3

Hello, we would like some curry

My birthday is a few days from now but a birthday celebration with, well, people in it could have only been possible about today. Before that my choice of place to eat was questioned, why CoCo Ichibanya of all places? What the heck can we even order there, and why is it only curry? I insisted on curry and a nice cake, simple if not cheap.

After some expected delay we arrive at the mall; the other family members haven't arrived yet. Let's check on our options for cake. Here's a Mary Grace, they make nice cheesecake, let's try that. Oh, cheesecake's out. Guess we'll go for the chocolate mousse then, we'll come back for that later though I'll check some other bakers- wait, I'm not supposed to say that?

We meet up with the rest of the birthday party contingent and head to the curry place. Most of the diners are eating in groups, but the place couldn't fit nine people. We had to wait for a group to leave and even then an extra table and extra seats were brought. Everyone seated, we peruse the menu. How often do we dine at these sorts of places? Let me give you an idea: there was trouble deciding what curry to order. The way curry is locally done is way different from the Japanese stuff, and the menu including rice and spice options didn't help with the confusion, but we finally got something we liked: pork cutlet curry of differing rice amounts and spiciness.

With the orders complete, let's check in on that cake- someone already got it? Now what? We'll just get that other cake then sure, we'll find a way to light the candle on our way back. As soon as the cake comes out of hiding the manager has to butt in about corkage. God forbid we eat something else in these hallowed curry grounds. This busybodying has soured things a bit that we managed to joke about having to pay to do things in there that aren't eating and complaining about it on the review form.

There isn't anything worth noting after that, but as of typing this my legs are sore from walking through three malls, again.

Quick con report

With the current state of my affairs, attending a convention ought not to be a priority, but I insist on going if only for the sake of commissions. Doesn't help that most of them have gone further than what my mother would allow me so far, but there's this one small event that's near enough that there would be no objections. Works for me.

Pinoy Otaku Festival is a small convention at Robinsons Novaliches. I do mean small, the entire venue is an open space hall at the corner of the mall's latest building. One can fit this space into any Megatrade Hall. Being a con of its size, the entrance fee is cheap but it makes up for it by being three days long. I opted to go on the first day, a Friday, being a day that I don't expect much to happen and mom insisted based on the idea that less people would be at a mall on a Friday compared to Saturday or Sunday. 

Whatever, off I go, a bit later than I'd usually go if it were on a bigger place. Somehow the place was still going quiet at noon. Some of the booths contain some interesting stuff: an actual art dealer, complete with sculptures; a couple of motel promoters; the Quezon City climate change commission to note a few. There are still vendors of figures, shirts, artists selling wares and professional cosplayers showing off their wears. Still, there wasn't much going. I did find a streamer, er, friend who had said on stream was going to work there, the second meet after that one free admission Otaku event at Trinoma. 

Not wanting to come out of the place empty-handed, I find a couple of the artists taking small portrait commissions. I opted to be a bit frugal and commissioned only one of my characters. I show the reference and because it's my detachable guy I got asked if I'm aware she'll only draw his face. Still, the people were interested enough to ask me more about him, which I did. Well, that's the commission settled, but with nothing else going for me, I started a bit of a walk across two more malls.

You see, after SM Fairview, Robinsons put up its own mall just across the highway. It started out as a supermarket that later had a mall added beside it. Much later Ayala decided to add to the mix with Fairview Terraces. They are placed close enough that you can visit all three of them in one day, if you're willing to walk up and down stairs and cross a road.

With not much to do there as I wait for my family to drop by after a house viewing, I walk to Fairview Terraces. Only planning to check the stores I usually visit for something to buy, I notice an interesting amount of children climbing up and down a series of escalators. I check it and floor by floor upward leads to more people, until I reach the top floor where the cinema and the majority of the people are. A walk into the cinema shows nothing short of chaos. Kids and their parents crowd the place, security try to keep the people from rushing into the theater. Somehow that place has more people in there than the convention I departed. Based on some observations the whole thing was likely a stage event by Commonwealth Elementary School, possibly a school play. 

This whole ordeal lead me to rush to National Bookstore to buy me a pen and a notepad, stuff I should always have on my person anyway.

What else is there... there was an interactive dinosaur-themed activity at that mall's event place. One had to buy tickets to get in just like POF, though.

I head then to SM Fairview. Nothing much to say, other than I caught sight of some cosplayers in costume on my way back to the con. There's something funny about casually going to a mall and just seeing these guys in silly garb walk around, now imagine just walking across a footbridge and seeing these guys.

Anyway, I return to the con and claim my commission, nicely waiting on the display rack. Then I wait for my family. There's an interview with a couple of professional cosplayers, though I didn't give much attention, I decided to try to ask when the host opened the front.

Before my question, someone asked how they separate personal life and cosplay life. One answered that she separates the two worlds, the other gal schedules her stuff. Now it's my turn, I ask how much preparation is done per costume. The former says it takes about two weeks to two months, giving leeway for some online orders, as for the latter she puts it at two weeks to a month, as there's also a preference for quality costumes and the competitive nature of cosplay to consider.

I waste my time at the media booth, between the art dealer and the climate change board. I also checked a booth by the Japan Foundation and took some nice leaflets and stickers, hopefully I can get myself to take learning Japanese more seriously with these.

Eventually I meet with my mom and the rest of the family, closing the day with a nice meal and a visit to the hardware store. With a change in financial plans I don't know how often I can go to conventions, but rest assured I'll be ready.

Chapter 2